NYPD Lieutenant Convicted In Ticket-Fixing Case

New York Police Dept. Internal Affairs Lieutenant Jennara Cobb, left, and her attorney Philip Karasyk, appear in Bronx state Supreme Court, in New York, Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. Cobb pleaded not guilty to charges of divulging a wiretap. New York City police officers pleaded not guilty Friday to a range of corruption charges in a sweeping probe touched off by an investigation into whether a Bronx officer had ties to a drug dealer. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, Pool)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – A police lieutenant was convicted Wednesday of leaking information about a ticket-fixing investigation that embarrassed the New York Police Department.

Lt. Jennara Cobb was found guilty of divulging an eavesdropping warrant, official misconduct and obstruction of governmental administration.

She faces up to a year in jail when she is sentenced on Dec. 4.

Cobb, a member of the internal affairs bureau, has been placed on modified assignment by the department.

Cobb’s case was the first to go to trial in state court in the Bronx. Prosecutors said she compromised the ticket-fixing investigation by warning another lieutenant and a police union representative delegate about the investigation during a 2010 conversation in a bar.

Prosecutors said that fed rumors that almost sabotaged the investigation by causing spooked union representatives and other targets to clam up and use different cellphones.

Cobb, 38, did not testify during her two-week, non-jury trial.

Louis Turco, president of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, indicated that the union would appeal the verdict.

The officer who sparked the ticket-fixing investigation, Jose Ramos, is currently on trial in the Bronx, charged with attempted grand larceny, attempted robbery, official misconduct and attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance. Ramos also faces five other separate indictments for crimes ranging from conspiracy to commit murder to official misconduct for the actual alleged ticket fixing.

Prosecutors say Ramos turned his two Bronx barbershops into a front for drug dealing, robbery and stolen goods.

They say Ramos tried to arrange a contract killing from behind bars where he was awaiting trial on drug-running charges

It was while investigators were looking into Ramos in 2009 that they heard calls from people seeing if he could fix tickets for them, they said. That led to more wiretaps that produced evidence of additional officers having similar conversations.